Room 214
by FeathersMcStrange
Summary: In which Peter Burke, and Ryan Hardy are high school teachers, Mike Weston is an overenthusiastic TA, and Neal Caffrey needs help. Part 1 of my 'Nonromantic AUs List' series. For Cam.


So I did a thing in which I was like 'here Tumblr pick an AU off this list of nonromantic AUs and then send me two characters and I'll write a drabble' which ended up with me writing of all things a White Collar/The Following crossover that broke 1k words whoops.

Anyhow, enjoy while I kick my ass into gear over my Suits AU and my Castle fic.

(pssst. Want me to write you an AU? A fic in general? Pop over to my Tumblr which is frostlawyer dot tumblr dot com and send me an ask .Or leave me a review. Or message me. w/e. I've got a pretty rad list of AUs though so hey. Incentive.)

Writers literally thrive off reviews. Help a writer out and leave one! Without further ado, dedicated to the ever lovely the-winds-of-summer on Tumblr, I give you an AU in which Ryan Hardy and Peter Burke are high school teachers because AU.

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If there was one thing Peter Burke had never planned on when he decided to be a teacher, it was how solidly this job was going to break his heart. He hadn't been banking on how many of them would be drowning, how many of them were in danger. He wasn't prepared for how many he couldn't save. He wasn't prepared for the one he ___could_save.

Peter had left early one morning to prepare for that day's test, telling his wife El, the art and foods teacher, that he would see her in the teacher's lounge and kissing her goodbye, heading out the door. The test wasn't the only reason he'd left early. He also enjoyed the occasional chance to walk to Washington High, especially during the crisp, cool October mornings, before it got too cold.

That morning had been especially chilly however, and he regretted not grabbing a bigger coat. He was just passing Northgate Park when his friend and fellow teacher Ryan's overeager, enthusiastic psychology class TA Mike Weston came careening around the corner, nearly smacking right into him. What there followed made Peter ___incredibly_glad he had decided to take the walk to school that morning.

It was a frigid morning, just after the night Neal Caffrey nearly froze to death on a public park bench, only to be found in the nick of time by a freaked out fourteen year old and a panicking teacher who hadn't seen him since he vanished in the middle of the fourth week of September several months previously. He'd dropped out of school and nobody had seen him since. Until now. It took the ambulance four excruciating minutes to reach them.

Three months later Ryan Hardy stood beside Peter Burke in the hallway as students filed out of their neighboring classes. Ryan's psychology class was the same period as Peter's AP US History class, and they often stood side by side against the small section of wall between their classrooms to watch their students head to lunch, field any last minute questions.

His short blond TA, Mike, left the classroom last, waving to Ryan with a cheerful "See you Wednesday!" and darted off down the hall to catch up with Neal. Ryan shook his head with a snort. Mike was small and brilliant, the youngest sophomore in the school at thirteen years old, having skipped two grades. He had signed on as Ryan's TA as soon as he was able, apparently under the impression the man had literally hung the moon, and was surprisingly good at it. He had also quickly befriended Neal once he was back in school, and more often than not the two of them, Ryan's niece Max, a girl named Sara, and a boy whose name neither teacher was entirely sure of but everyone called 'Mozzie' would be seen around the school together.

"How's he doing?" Ryan asked Peter, tilting his chin at Neal. Peter sighed, shaking his head.

"Better. Not great. It's Neal, so, as good as can be expected."

It had been three months since he had ran into Mike Weston on the way to school, the boy tugging him urgently into the park to the sixteen year old on the park bench with blue lips and a barely moving chest. Three months since Peter had carried him out of the park to the ambulance as it pulled up, not waiting for the paramedics, depositing him on a gurney and watching with a hand over his mouth and a stunned sophomore at his side as the vehicle took off for Northgate Mercy Hospital.

Slowly the story came out, of how Neal's mother had died when he was very small, and over the summer his dirty cop father had cut and run, leaving Neal on his own. He'd managed for a while but had to drop out of school to run small cons and pickpocket full time to feed himself. He'd been kicked out of the apartment just a week before, and that's how he'd wound up on a bench in the park early in the morning.

Following a long discussion with El, a late phone call to Ryan for advice, and a meeting with social services, circumstances found Neal Caffrey sitting at the Burke family kitchen table, a backpack with all he owned inside it laying on the floor beside him. Jump forward to January and there he still was, and Peter had admitted to Ryan in the teacher's lounge one day that he was pretty sure this arrangement wasn't as temporary as he and El had originally thought. They were both too invested. Neal was just starting to feel safe.

"I worry about him," Peter confessed, head dropping back against the wall, narrowly missing the plaque that read 'Room 214, Mr. Burke'.

"That's parenthood, Peter," said Ryan with a quiet chuckle. "And exactly why I don't have kids. For what it's worth though, I think you're doing good. Better than I'd do." There was a reason Ryan hadn't had children, beyond simply that he didn't need the extra worry in his life. He had trouble staying on the wagon after stressful days, had never been able to hold down a relationship... The only real people in his life aside from his students were his sister, his niece, and the Burkes.

Ryan shook his head and walked into his room, Peter following him. El joined them a few minutes later, handing Peter his lunch and kissing him on the cheek. She said a cheerful hello to Ryan and perched on a desk by the front of the room. It seemed casual enough, close enough to converse with Ryan behind his head desk and Peter, standing leaning against the blackboard, but she did have another motive, one standing by a copse of trees on the schoolyard.

Her husband caught her eye and grinned. She smiled back sheepishly, sending a glance down to where Neal and his friends were waiting out the lunch period, flicking rubber bands at each other. Ryan was talking about leaving his TA to handle the room and coming back to see the entire class enthralled, joking that he might just leave the teaching to the kid if he needed a break some day. Peter laughed along and El's smile widened. She looked from Peter to Ryan to the kids running about outside. El sighed and took a bite of the apple in her hand. A breeze drifted in through the cracked window, her friend's voice a low hum in the background as she lost herself in her thoughts, in musing at how she could never have imagined her life ending up this way, but now that she had it it was impossible to envision a life that wasn't this one. Maybe everything wasn't all the way alright right now. But it would be.


End file.
